Portrait

by Aly
(Iowa)

On the first night we arrived at our new home, I knew something was different. My parents had played my mediumship off to mental problems, depression, hallucination, etc. I was thirteen, almost fourteen, and setting up my new bedroom. I had the best view in the house, and the sun streamed through three windows. My mother had every plan on making it one of the prettiest rooms in the house.Other things were going on, though, and I knew it had to be paranormal.

We kept setting certain items, such as a pencil or keys, on the kitchen table, and turning round a few seconds later to find it missing. The item would later turn up in a different location. Other things, like doors shutting on their own, windows opened on their own, seemed as if there were a child playing pranks all around us.

My parents refused to believe in the paranormal occurrences, but I kept catching glimpses of a little blonde head whipping around the house, especially around the basement and my room.The instances seemed to blend into the wallpaper... We forgot about it until about two years ago, when it turned into a sort of frenzy. I'd be left alone in the house and find all doors and windows opening and slamming shut on a constant basis. I heard a small child wailing, as if terrified or in pain, and a girl crying and calling out for her mother. I recorded a five minute EVP (electronic voice phenomena) using an ordinary mini-cassette recorder that I normally used during my college lectures. What I recorded I could not explain... Absolute chaos. Crying, screaming, a little girl calling, "Mommy!" A woman shouting, "Get out!" A man roughly yelling, "Shut up!"

At this time I was dating my fiance. My fiance, Will, is also a medium to a sense. His best friend, Cassi, has the gift so deeply, she can channel entities if they wish to convey a personal message. I got on the phone to them as soon as I was able to, my laptop on, and tried to record video. The only thing I found was when a friend was viewing my webcam on instant messenger, and saw a man covered in blood standing in one of the bedrooms. I went to the kitchen, sat down at the table, and everyone heard it... Myself, Will, Cassi, and one of my friends on instant messenger... "YOU WILL DO AS YOU ARE TOLD, OR YOU WILL BE PUNISHED!!!" I jumped a few feet in the air.

Cassi then got her first visitation, from the little girl. She was six, scared, and her name was Sandra. All she could tell us was that her daddy was mad at her for some reason, she didn't know why.Next, Cassi pulled the father. For some reason, after the initial blast of arrogance and anger, Daniel, Sandra's father, recognized Cassi. Once Daniel had left, Cassi had a flashback. She remembered every angle, really, about the night it happened. It was a bad night, during the Depression of the '30s.

My parents' neighborhood turned out to have had slum lands built on the entire property. The only thing I ever found about the property was that it had been farmland before the house was built in the 1960s. But I found the records that proved there were slum lands, thousands of tiny shacks and tents, barely big enough to fit three people, built in clusters on each block.

Cassi remembered Daniel coming home after being fired from his job to a very angry wife, who thought he'd been cheating on him. He had worked at a speakeasy as security. The main woman in charge of the girls had come to the shack to try to find him, but he'd already left for work. She'd been vague about the reason she wanted to see Daniel, but Emily was adamant... She truly thought he was unfaithful. She told him she was going to take their three children - Timothy, 10, Sandra, 6, and Billy, barely 3 - and leave, make for the South, where her mother lived. Daniel was also manic depressive and majorly bipolar. Of course, they weren't informed of these sorts of disorders in those days. Daniel was in the midst of a true manic blackout by the time he'd reached the shack.

When Emily attacked him as he entered, he truly lost his mind. He commenced to chaining Emily and all the children to the heavy oak table in their makeshift kitchen/living room arrangement. Then he whipped and beat them all until they each in turn died. About fifteen minutes later, he came to himself and realized what he had done. In a flurry of depression, grief, anguish and shame, he took his gun, which he had kept under the makeshift mattress he and his wife had slept on. He shot himself in the head.

Once I got the entire story from Cassi, I had to leave the house - right then and there. I was so creeped out. While I was out gathering information on the family, Cassi reconciled Sandra and Daniel, but Emily would have none of it. Timothy and Billy had each passed over. Billy, simply because he was too young, and Timothy, after one of my earlier experiences sent him over. Sandra and Daniel both crossed over into the light. Emily wouldn't leave it alone. Emily's still in my parents' home, quietly. I still see her now and then when I visit.

The thing is, I found birth and death certificates for every single one of them - all five. I also found Daniel and Emily's marriage certificate. I found a microfilm of a newspaper clipping as well as a picture of all five of them - I recognized them all, as did Cassi.

It just goes to show how some paranormal recurrences can lead to real truth!